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Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 1 Chapter 2 · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to the Lord of the Rings, a writer's journey. A special side cast of
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  myth-makers where we take a deep dive from a writer's perspective into the Lord of the
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  Rings. My name is Julia Golding. I'm a Tolkien enthusiast and also an author. And today we
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  have reached chapter 2, the shadow of the past. So the first thing to say about this is hold
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  onto your hats because this chapter is chock full of really essential sayings and information
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  that's going to set us up for the rest of the journey. But let's just have a little think about
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  the chapter title before we go on because it is very appropriate. The chapter is all about the burden
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  of the past on the people in the present but also it matches with the key location which is inside
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  bag end as Frodo and Gandalf are discussing matters concerning the ring outside all is sunny but
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  inside they're in a room with a fire with the curtains drawn so there are shadows in the room.
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  Anyway, so let's start at the beginning of this chapter. An interesting thing here is that it is
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  a mirror chapter of the previous beginning chapter except with the next generation. So structurally
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  you get the same things happening you get the first part is seen from the perspective of they the
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  Hobbit folk rather than our lead characters and it moves towards a conversation between Gandalf
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  and Frodo mirroring that one of Bilbo and Gandalf. I think this is one of the reasons why
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  Lord the Ring seems to take a little bit of time to get going because it is a kind of repetition.
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  It feels as though we're not going anywhere not getting anywhere though of course there is a lot
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  of key things being established. In that sense this is another of those do not try this at home
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  because I'm not sure that this would work for most novelists. Anyway let's have a look at the
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  opening moves. We get a reprise how the people have seen Bilbo's disappearance and we get the
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  sense or we're told that the baton has passed Frodo who's in a lonely fashion carrying on the
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  tradition of the joint birthday party and here we also get the mention of two key characters
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  that is Peregrin Tuk. It's usually called Pippin and Mary Brandyback. His real name was Mary Adok
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  but that was seldom remembered. And the first important thing we find out about them
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  I did you notice this the first independent view we hear of them is that they're watching
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  Frodo very carefully and we get their suspicion that Frodo is off visiting the elves.
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  This lays the ground for what is later called the conspiracy where the friends have
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  worked out what his plans are even though he thought he was being very clever and very secret.
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  We also get a repetition of the worrying theme that those who have the Ring don't grow older
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  and this reminds us of that heartbeat that carries on underneath every chapter that the ring has
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  its effect on whoever is carrying it. And remaining in this frame of the general wisdom of the Hobbits
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  we get little snippets of what they're hearing about events in the outside world.
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  Such a quite a clever way of telling us just enough about what we need to know about the gathering
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  shadows and trouble without burdening us with too much detailed reporting of the politics of it all.
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  We're understanding it in the same sort of a shaky way that the Hobbits understand it.
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  Then we come to the first conversation in this chapter which happens down at the green dragon.
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  If you remember in the last chapter we had all the old gaffers sitting in the ivy bush.
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  The green dragon is obviously the happening place because this is where the younger generation
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  is having their conversation including the sons of a couple of the characters who were present
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  in the ivy bush, notably Sam, Sam Gamji and the younger Miller Sandiman.
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  In this conversation the theme of the worrying events outside the shy is repeated but you get
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  here also an insight into Sam's character because he has to put out with some ribbing from the
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  rather obnoxious Miller's son Ted whose relationship with logic is somewhat shaky and he's
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  applauded for things which really have no logical sense about them at all but Sam laughs along with
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  everybody else so we get a sense that he isn't too demanding of those people around him but we
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  also have the setup here that Sam is ripe for adventure. He is the one who mentions dragons.
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  He is the one who mentions elves and he has this strange moment as poetic moment where he
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  chants about how they're sailing, sailing, sailing away. We can see that he has this longing
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  for things that are outside the shower even though on paper he's the most stay-at-home hobbit
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  of them all being a Gamji close to the earth and his potatoes. Another part of this conversation which
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  I enjoy is the fact that there are stories here that we never actually get to the bottom of.
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  There are rumors in fact Sam is one telling us about giants who are seen walking on the moors
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  like elm trees which leads to one of Ted Sandiman's nonsensical responses saying that there are no
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  elm trees so therefore it didn't exist but it does foreshadow the ends but we never go back to that.
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  Sam never says, oh yes that must have been what I saw or what my relatives saw. So it's just left
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  out there gesturing to a bigger world which we can never grasp. In this sense of the world beyond
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  the borders Tolkien points out that a lot of the shire maps have just white space beyond their
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  borders. The world beyond their borders is something we're never going to get to the bottom of.
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  It all adds to the sense of very similitude about middle earth that it's bigger than any of us
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  can understand. We then get a bridging passage about the length of time that Gandalf has been away.
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  It actually takes quite a bit of reading to understand it because it seems to sort of circle back
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  on itself. It says just about that time Gandalf reappeared then he said three years after the party
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  then he's been popping back and forth. The best way of actually working when this reappearance of
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  Gandalf happens is to pin it to Sam's conversation down the pub because it specifically said
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  that he comes on the same night that Sam is walking home from that green dragon conversation.
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  So it puts it in Frodo's 50th year because that stated earlier. Anyway we've got Gandalf arriving
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  and then they go to bed. The next morning their conversation is where the mirroring is most apparent
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  because the two of them are sitting alone by an open window enjoying the comforts of Bagend.
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  But there's some important differences. We are appreciating the autumnal feel of the conversation
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  between Bilbo and Gandalf. Here we are in the green of spring and everything is just beginning to wake
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  up and Gandalf is having spring thoughts as well. So the whole mood is up,
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  even though there is a fire in the great which means it's not that warm but you've got the sounds
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  of Sam outside going about the garden and anyone who has a garden in England knows that
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  certainly April and May the garden suddenly wakes up and gets turbocharged and there is a lot
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  of gardening to be done at that period. So this conversation is the one which I was referring to which
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  is absolutely stuff full of key information but it is also a massive slab of retailing or
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  backstory presented to us. Doing backstory like this is really difficult. So how does Tolkien
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  carry it off so that we don't just feel we're reading some kind of extended prologue?
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  Well there are several features here which might be useful to draw out. One is that you have to make
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  it matter. What is being told isn't just an account of the ages, it's absolutely essential
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  and we know this from how Frodo is reacting that Frodo understands the gravity of the situation
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  he finds himself in. In fact half of the conversation is really a big build-up to the revelation
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  that Saron has heard of the Shire and the family of Baggins but that's kind of buried a bit later.
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  The other thing Gandalf does in his account is he does keep it relatively brief. It is a large
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  amount of information but as he moves through the information he keeps going. There's a real
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  sense of momentum and then the other very important part to keep this as a lively discussion
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  is Frodo is sitting there basically being us asking the questions we would want to ask, reacting,
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  responding so it's a give and take it's a dramatised scene not just a solid slab of information
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  for us to take in. And the final thing to point out is that the style of narrative changes
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  when Gandalf reaches perhaps the most interesting element of it psychologically and certainly for
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  when we meet Gollum later in the book. He stops the account of tale of the ages and he turns it
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  into a dramatised scene. He says what he thinks Miguel says he says what he thinks Deagle says we
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  can picture it. So it's a storyteller's technique has changed it up on us so that we are entertained
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  whilst we are listening to something very important. And I would just say that this is a section
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  which gets richer every time you go back to reading Lord of the Rings because you understand
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  more about it and you see more levels in what's going on here for shadowing things that happen
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  later or referring to earlier events. On that note very early on in his explanation of the rings
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  Gandalf mentions the Elven Smiths of Oregion. Now Oregion we are actually going to go to a bit later
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  when the fellowship get traveling they also call it hollum and if you're looking for it on your
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  map from the book just look for Moria it's outside the doors of Moria on the west side.
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  He doesn't go into great detail here but if you're trying to link the events of Lord of the Rings
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  to the Silmarillion or the Rings of Power series on Amazon the Smiths that make the rings are
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  living with Killer Brimble who is the master Smith. Here's the one who makes the three great Elven
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  rings and it's that character who is the leader of the land of Oregion at this time when the
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  rings were made. And this is one of those little comments which will enrich our understanding
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  of later journeys of the fellowship and also when they're reading the doors of Moria that name will
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  come up and if you have a long good memory you can then connect it back to the making of the rings
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  back in this section. We also get another early mention here of Saruman and this is before Gandalf
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  has been trapped in Eisengaard but already he is distrusting his superior the leader of the White
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  Council. He is going his own way and fortunately hasn't mentioned anything about his suspicions
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  about the ring at this point which does give Frodo a little bit of a breathing space as we shall
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  see. This section could be subtitled What's at stake so we know there's a lot at stake for the
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  wider world because the ring is so powerful but what's at stake for Frodo personally and here we get
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  a clear explanation of the bad effects of the ring and how it affects different people in different
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  ways and it is done through a discussion of what effect it had on Bilbo and here we have a nice
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  echo of the first chapter because Gandalf says of Hobbits that there are soft as butter and
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  tapas tree roots and one of the symptoms that Bilbo reported which made him decide to leave the
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  shy was he felt like butter spread over too much bread so we got this image of butter which of course
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  fits with the agrarian trencherman hobbit and here it's used again. We also get the repetition of
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  the litany of Hobbit names that we had three times in the previous chapter in a slightly
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  truncated form but this time the list of names is given by Gandalf and we get the reversed
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  point of view this is Gandalf's view of the Hobbits we've had a lot about what the Hobbits think
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  about him and here he says he thinks about the Hobbits as charming absurd helpless Hobbits which
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  of course the majority are but it's very important that some of them they may be charming
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  they can be absurd looking at you Pippin but they are certainly not helpless they become the
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  movers and shakers of what is to be the big confrontation to come and then the other subheading
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  for this chapter is what's the motive of the adversary and here they discuss
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  sarron seeking malice and revenge so we've seen a lot of the admirable qualities of Frodo and
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  Bilbo which include kindness generosity all these kind of excellent heartwarming qualities
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  and this is up against a dark lord whose main happiness would be to see such characters as
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  the Hobbits in slavery so we know which side we're going to be on in this coming confrontation
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  then we get the test you're a member from your reading of the book that you have the beautiful
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  inscription written there and then in the wonderful Elvish script and then you get Gandalf's
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  translation which introduces us to the second poem in the main text which is the one ring to rule
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  them all poem and this leads on to the clarion call the quarter adventure in a sense which is the
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  pronouncement that the test has proved that this is the master ring and that the dark lord must not
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  get it that is now what the rest of the book is going to be about it's also an interesting
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  aspect here which i've been worrying about which is that it's clear as Gandalf puts the ring in
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  the far and takes it out again and passes it to Frodo that he's actually touching the ring
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  he knows that it's cool so this suggests that he's touching it with bare skin
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  rather than just the tongs he takes it out with the tongs and then passes it to Frodo i'm guessing
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  that he isn't in any way claiming any ownership over it so it doesn't have quite the same effect
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  as it does when it when it's passed over in ownership but anyway it's just a little note because
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  seems to be one of the few moments when somebody else touches the ring and before we move on from
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  this early part of their conversation just want to underline the most brilliant exchange in the book
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  possibly in a lot of English literature which is of course Frodo is disturbed to find that this
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  responsibility has come to him and you get this fantastic exchange Frodo says i wish it
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  need not have happened in my time so do i said Gandalf and so do all who live to see such times
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  but that is not for them to decide all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given
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  us now remember that Tolkien is allowing us to make this applicable to our own lives and i certainly
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  personally have found it very helpful at many times but it must also have been his thoughts as a young
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  man as the first world war broke out and that he and his bookish companions all had to go to war
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  something which none of them would have sought out it was stressed upon them and of course
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  so many of them lost their lives i also find it quite helpful when i'm thinking about such
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  difficult issues as the threat of climate change Gandalf's words are something of a talisman
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  so if you haven't noticed them already i just want to draw your attention to them
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  there's also something that Gandalf says which i thought would be worth elucidating in case you missed
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  which is he talks about the outcome that the dark lord is trying to achieve and that is
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  trying to spread a second darkness now there is no explanation of what this means but you can
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  find the answer in the Silmarillion so the world begins under starlight and then the valar over in
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  the elven lands create lights and the first set of lights they create our two trees
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  but sarons overlord the sort of big baddie of them all attacks them with a spider
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  ungoliant who is the ancestor of shilob who is obviously that scary spider that we meet much later
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  and this action where the spider this massive spider consumes all available light
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  swallows it all up is what plunges the world into darkness the first time so that's the first
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  darkness that's done by melcore and saron is attempting to do his own version of this i think
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  we're to understand it as a sort of darkness of spirit and a reenation of the land rather than
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  a literal eating up of the sun and the moon but that's what the history has told us is possible
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  if evil prevails so Gandalf gives us a brief history of the ring and the place where he stops to
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  expand is as i've said the drama between smegel and digel it's a great little episode of the
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  proto hobbits fishing by the stream and it's digel who finds the ring not smegel and smegel's
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  future path is carved out for him by the fact that he takes the ring in an act of murder
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  completely unlike bilbo who finds it by chance but even isledua who takes it in battle as part
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  of a heroic act and Frodo who takes it on as an inheritance smegel who is to become golem
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  takes it through greed possibly under the influence of the ring because the ring has this malign
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  presence about it which does drive people into extreme actions but it clearly is going to be
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  a downward path for him because he not only takes it he also does it as a sort of perverted birthday
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  present idea we know that hobbits in the modern era give things on their birthday it seems as
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  it smegel's people receive presents and he makes up this story which he comforts himself with
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  he excuses his evil on the flimsy ground that he should have got it because it was his birthday
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  is also notable that even before he found the ring smegel was looking down not up and there is much
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  made in the book about looking up to the stars that's the place of hope is the place that the
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  elves sing about up his good down is not good so that's already signaling his alignment this story
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  leads to a very important conversation between Frodo and Gandalf definitely worth going back and
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  rereading if you can't remember what they say but Frodo's immediate response is to try another golem
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  he doesn't want to accept that he is anything like the hobbits and he says he is a nasty creature
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  he basically wants to disown him as having anything to do with hobbits and Gandalf is really
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  interesting here he is in his conversation he is teaching Frodo to pity golem and this characteristic
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  is so important dipping back into Gandalf's past some of the few mentions we have of him in his
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  existence before he came to middle earth is that he is sitting with the valar nianna who teaches him
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  pity so he has learnt pity from the very top and I think this is Gandalf's key characteristic that
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  he brings with him into middle earth and here we get a masterclass in trying to understand the
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  enemy and feel pity for them and he talks about how golem both hates and loves the ring
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  so fascinating insight into the psychology of an addiction of course there is one comment here
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  though that I'm I'm pondering which is golem wasn't talking to Gandalf and Gandalf said he was
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  forced to put the fear of fire in him do we think that Gandalf would have threatened him with some
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  form of torture I remember I was really shocked in watching the Peter Jackson version of the film when
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  pharameas men basically rough up golem which seemed very not at all the spirit of pharamea
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  are we to understand that Gandalf did this I don't know I think it's probably more
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  like Gandalf did with Bilbo that he exposed something of his true nature he says when he's
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  confronting the Balrog that he's the servant of the secret fire so perhaps he is referring to the
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  fact that he unmasked his true power to golem and golem reacts to whoever is the most powerful
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  in the room so perhaps it's that I don't know but that's one little comment which I've wrestled
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  with and haven't got a very good answer for this moves the conversation on to the discussion
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  of why the ring has come to Frodo and this is one of those places where we get the closest to
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  the sense of some kind of divine providence happening in Lord the Rings talking actually says in his
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  letters that he went back through and took out any overt references to religion and that kind of
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  thing he doesn't need it but he does hear gesture through Gandalf to the idea of Frodo being meant
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  to have the ring and that there are forces of good and forces of evil at play and it's the battle
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  between those two that Frodo is caught up in there is actually a reference to gods or demi gods
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  in Lord the Rings but they're quite hidden I noticed recently that when the olive font or the
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  mummukhil flees the attack and is stampeding towards Frodo Sam and pharomies men they
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  appeal the men of gondor appeal to the valar to save them this is the closest thing to a prayer
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  I think that I've come across in Lord the Rings this section also establishes the ring as a character
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  in its own right it's got a will it leaves golem it is trying to get back to its master going back
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  to the film versions I think the idea of the the whispering ring that you get in the film versions
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  actually helps bring this out but you have to look for those mentions in the text and then you
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  also see it by the influence it has on others in the story it's good to I think in this conversation
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  to increase our interest in it and also the sense of tension in that there is a bit of
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  testiness going on between Frodo and Gandalf Frodo is actually quite cross he didn't want this to
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  happen to him and he does snap back at Gandalf and Gandalf snaps back at him but you sense that
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  this isn't because they are in any way not fond of each other it's because they are both scared
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  and they are both ill at ease they've just discovered they've got the most powerful
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  artifact in their world in that room and they're trying to work out what to do with it
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  Gandalf no doubt feels terrible that Frodo has been putting this situation and Frodo feels terrible
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  because he realizes that it's going to have an impact on himself and everybody in the Shire
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  so that sense that they aren't just talking calmly about it but they are being a bit rude to
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  each other gives us a sense just how important how much this matters so we pass through two other
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  important moments before we get the big reveal one is the mention of Aragon as the tracker who
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  actually found Gollum and the other is Gandalf admitting that he made a mistake by not following
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  up when he should have done but that is all paled into insignificance by him saying that Gollum
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  has revealed the existence of the Shire and the existence of Bilbo Baggins and the family of
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  the Baggins to the Dark Lord this leads to poor old Frodo saying quite understandably
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  it's a pity that Bilbo didn't polish off or didn't kill Gollum when he had the opportunity
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  and this is the second most important thing that Gandalf says in this chapter the thing that
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  resonates through the whole story pity it was pity that stayed his hand pity and mercy not
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  to strike without need and this of course becomes completely essential because it was Bilbo's pity
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  who means that Gollum is there to actually help Frodo achieve the quest in the end so look how the
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  writer codes all of that in right at the beginning of his story long before we understand what
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  its significance is going to be we also have the nice trail that Gandalf says he thinks Gollum
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  still has a part to play so look out for Gollum he's saying but that's not the end of the conversation
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  it has a really interesting ending because three things happen quite quickly one is Frodo under
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  challenge from Gandalf tries to destroy the ring and discovers just what a grip it's got on him
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  which must be a horrible moment of realization but then after Gandalf's made him see that he turns
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  the tables on Gandalf by offering him the ring and Gandalf's reaction shows just what a terrifying
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  thing this is because he knows that part of him would take it and the part that would take it
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  is pity he would take it out of pity but he knows the consequences well enough not to some succumb
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  to temptation so he is the first of the important characters to pass the test of not taking the ring
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  for himself which becomes structurally a very important part of how the story is told we're going
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  to go on and we're going to see Galadriel passing a similar test Boramir failing the test
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  but his brother Faramir will very nobly succeed even though he's forfeiting potentially his
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  own life by that decision and of course there are others who will also face the same test
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  but then the story takes a couple of dramatic leaps the first is Frodo surprising Gandalf by
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  realizing that he has to leave and this takes Gandalf by surprise this is where Frodo really
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  is taking the initiative is not just a passenger in this journey he's actually making the play
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  by deciding he'll have to leave behind Bagend and the Shire and then we suddenly get an insight
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  into just how grim it could be because Gandalf fears they're being listened to by a spy that's
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  basically what he's thinking here and he hauls Sam Gamji into the room through the window we've had
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  several mentions as the chapter has progressed of Garden noises outside and it's the silence
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  that alerts Gandalf to the potential of an eavesdropper Gandalf depends how you read this
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  is Gandalf genuinely considering that perhaps in some way Sam Gamji has been corrupted
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  Frodo doesn't think so he knows Sam very well I think it's fair to say that Gandalf is giving it
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  serious consideration until he senses the reactions of Sam are honest and charming at the same time
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  he hasn't heard very much he says he just heard about an enemy and rings a Mr. Bilbo sir and
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  dragons and a fiery mountain and and elves so basically he's heard everything hasn't he
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  and I think it's that enthusiasm which makes Gandalf stand down from his code red response
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  this leads to the end of the chapter which comes to the decision that Frodo is leaving the shire
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  and Sam is going with him and it has a really good end which sums up the mixed feelings of Sam
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  he says hooray and then burst into tears so what does a writer do we make of chapter two
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  I think it shows us that Tolkien is clearly not a writer who is worried about spending a long time
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  on backstory but he has very clever techniques of making that backstory feel earned and he changes
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  the way he tells us things so we go from the the frame of shire knowledge with its faint grasp of
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  what's going on to Gandalf's expert knowledge he's found out far more than anybody else has known
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  so we have the lure of being taken into a secret and we have some wonderful important things being
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  said about the core values of Lord the Rings is it taking too long to get started well I guess if
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  it was being written today you would say that it is certainly not the current fashion
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  generation I can imagine a present day editor putting a great big red line through this and say
• 32:53
  tell us on you know show us this don't tell us this but because the middle of his soul full of
• 33:01
  rich textual links there is a story behind everything that's mentioned that having an early
• 33:08
  chapter saying here's the problem here's the ring and here's just a fragment of the massive history
• 33:16
  of that ring helps us buy into the idea of the reality of middle earth the reality of the problem
• 33:25
  and the sense of urgency but of course the odd thing is that they don't get going at the beginning
• 33:32
  of chapter 3 after all